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Poland

Club: RAC Kraków-Wawel

District: 2231

Number of people involved: 10

Hours volunteered: 10

In September this year, three of our members have visited a boarding school for
blind children in Kraków (Poland) in the hope of offering our help in organizing fun and social events for the children, some of whom have been born completely blind and some who are suffering from progressive illness.
During the first visit in the school, something important struck us immediately – the condition of the building, in which the children are spending most of their time, leaves a lot to be desired. In particular, the corridor on the first floor where children aged 6-14 years old live and study. Luckily, one of our members who happens to be an architect came up with a spontaneous idea of trying to create a design, that won’t be limited to a splash of fresh paint on the walls but rather an original design that will involve new anti-reflective floors, even-spread lighting and fun and curiosity-evoking textured walls.
Currently, the project is in progress – with many consultations with the school
staff to ensure the corridor design won’t only be fun for the children to experience but most importantly will meet all required needs and standards for the children’s health condition.
A months later, the club has invited a guest speaker who is an experienced architect and professor and specializes in ‘special needs design’ that also involves designing rooms for blind people. Furthermore, by the beginning of the new year when the final draft will be completed we will start to actively search for sponsors who will support this good cause and share our ambitious vision for creating a positive common space for these wonderful children.
During this time we are actively trying to get to know the kids and teachers in the
school. The first step for us was to organise a Halloween meeting, from which you see the pictures. We organised fun games, made a lot of salt dough with different colors and scents for the kids to enjoy and we made our own lollipops during the party. We are very motivated to continue helping this institution, mostly because the positive energy that the kids and teachers have is contagious.